1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mixing element that mixes/agitates two or more types of fluids by using fluid energy of the fluids, and a method for manufacturing the same. The mixing element is used as a mixing/agitating device that does not need power for mixing/agitating a gas and a liquid, a gas and a gas, a liquid and a liquid, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an existing mixing element (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-067819), a cylindrical passage tube and a plurality of spiral blades are joined to each other at an inner wall portion of the passage tube. Therefore, when the inner wall portion of the passage tube and the blades are joined by a welding unit, intervals between adjacent blades are restricted by the size of a welding torch. Consequently, there is a limit as to how fine the intervals between adjacent blades can be made. By making the intervals into fine intervals, a ratio (m2/m3) of a total surface area (m2) of the blades per unit volume (m3) of the mixing element is increased, so that fluid mixing efficiency is increased.
However, as a result of the intervals being restricted by the size of a welding tool, in a narrow space, it is considerably difficult to weld the blades to the inner wall portion of the tube. Therefore, there has been a demand for a mixing element having high mixing efficiency per unit volume.